The Right Triangle
by Kaleyanne
Summary: Is there a way to cheer Yusuke up and bring him closer to Keiko... over a Geometry book? Kuwabara decides to find out. [YusKei. Four completed, posted chapters. Discontinued.]
1. Part One

Happy birthday, Ava! Your birthday fic has mutated into a multi-parter... I'll try to get you the next piece by Christmas, okay? D

The Right Triangle, part one

"Urameshi!" Kuwabara called, spotting his partner a few yards ahead. "Hold up!"

Yusuke paused, and turned around, fingers beating a random rhythm on his school bag. He could see Kuwabara jogging up to him; dodging a few first year girls and their boyfriends, weaving his way around the school's token drug dealers to catch up. The school's top delinquent had, for some odd reason, decided to grace the school with his forceful presence that day, and was annoyed that his escape was being deterred.

"Hey," Yusuke said dully, as he started up again. Kuwabara easily fell into step with them. More and more often, Yusuke noticed they were beginning to harmonize with each other. When Yusuke was off his game, Kuwabara was automatically sharper, simply by instinct. When Kuwabara was running late for some reason, a subtle urging caused Yusuke to be on time. They were learning, instinctively, to compensate for each other. It was almost unsettling, to a loner like Yusuke.

"Hey," Kuwabara returned. He'd been noticing those little things as well. When Yusuke was slacking in class, he suddenly worked harder, kept his notes neater. It was almost unsettling. "What's up?"

Yusuke shrugged. "Nothing. Everything."

Kuwabara rolled his eyes. "Real descriptive, man."

"Leave me alone, Kuwabara," Yusuke snapped back. "I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Geez," the redhead muttered. "Sorry I wanna know what goes on in your life."

The shorter of the two sighed. "Sorry. I'm in a bad mood."

"No, really?"

"Shut up."

A smirk tugged at Kuwabara's face. Typical Yusuke. "So why are you in a bad mood?" he asked.

Yusuke groaned softly. "Just about everyone wants to screw me over today. Especially Iwamoto."

"Ah. I get it." Well, sort of. The bigger picture was still beyond his line of vision, but that was to be expected. It would only broaden if Yusuke decided it was necessary.

Yusuke snuck a glance towards Kuwabara. He was looking straight ahead, bag slung over his broad shoulder. He was just short of beginning to whistle, which he only did when he was genuinely pleased or wanted something.

"You idiot," Yusuke grumbled. "You want the whole story, don'cha?"

"Well..."

"Why d'you want to know, anyway?" Yusuke asked. "I mean, it really doesn't affect you, right?"

Kuwabara blinked, frowning thoughtfully. "Well, I guess it kinda depends on your definition of 'affect,' y'know? I mean, sure, it doesn't really affect me personally, except if something happened, I guess I'd be righteously indignant on your behalf, right?" He rolled his shoulder to loosen it. "Or I could sympathize. You're not the only one who has a teacher devotin' his life to getting you expelled from school."

"Crap, is Akashi getting on you, again?" Yusuke asked carefully. "Man, we should go beat him up. Maybe Hiei would help, that guy needs one of those squishy stress balls, you know?"

Kuwabara raised an eyebrow. "You've been hanging out with Kurama lately, haven't you?" he accused.

Yusuke sighed. "How'd ya guess?"

Kuwabara grinned. "The whole attempt at subject-changing. I spent a month in the great outdoors with that guy; I know how he operates."

"Then you deserve a medal," Yusuke chuckled. "Even Keiko says he's a puzzle just waiting to be put together, and she knows how to read people real good."

"Was she tryin' to read you again?" Kuwabara questioned. "That why you're out of it?"

"Why d'you think I'm out of it?"

"Stop playing games," Kuwabara scolded. "If I don't know when you're hiding the fact that you're out of it by now, I would be as stupid as everyone thinks I am."

"If you say so, man."

"I do say so. So can we quit the runaround? Soon, preferably. There is a Geometry test I need to study for."

There were these weird moments where Kuwabara just shot blindly in the dark and landed a bull's-eye. Extra-sensory perception. More commonly known as ESP; it meant that somehow, he perceived things (feelings, memories, opinions) that should be beyond the normal human grasp.

Judging by the suddenly darker look on Urameshi's face... now was one of those times.

These perceptions usually came to him in the form of dreams. He could no longer count how many times he had dreamt of his precious Yukina's long search for her missing brother. Nor could he remember how many times he had witnessed the death of Youko Kurama; felt the screams of fear bubbling in the fox's throat as he had been pierced by arrows and bullets. Just as frequently he had watched Botan's first days as ferrygirl, when her soul was recycled from a living form...

But there were other... they weren't premonitions, because they were not in the future... vibes, or feelings, or concepts that just jumped into his brain and out of his mouth. Like right now. The Geometry test; he hadn't thought about it all day, and now here it was, tossed out from the mix of feelings he had gleaned from Yusuke, put together by his subconscious.

Apparently that test (in Iwamoto's subject, no less) was the thorn in his friend's side, the itching powder in his pajamas, the fly in his soup—if Urameshi spent too much time with Kurama, he himself was definitely hanging around too much with Botan. She had a thing for thinking up crazy metaphors. Kuwabara found it endearing, but they had a bad habit of sticking with you. Some of them were fairly amusing.

He shook off memories of Botan's cheerfulness, to get a good study of the dark, shorter profile of Yusuke Urameshi. His smooth jaw was set a little tighter than usual, face sculpted into a perfect scowl. Scratch too much time with Kurama, maybe Yusuke was getting 'How to Be a Jerk' lessons from Hiei? If Keiko's recent complaints (though his sources were second-hand, confided by Keiko to Botan to himself. Though by that time it was really more gossip than anything else, wasn't it?) were anything to go by, he certainly was.

_Score. That's Double-Bingo, _Kuwabara realized. Iwamoto and Keiko. The Geometry test. Of course. Iwamoto was inflicting the math test, Keiko was nagging him to study and do well.

_Man, I'm good, _the teen thought briefly, before turning his mind back to helping Urameshi.

Well. The obvious course of action was to eliminate the problem. Specifically, Keiko and Iwamoto. That... was not going to work. There were days when Kuwabara would kill for a shot at the grumpy math teacher, almost as frequently as he wished for their science teacher, Akashi, to take a long walk off a short cliff.

As for Keiko, even if she was bogging Urameshi down, Kuwabara was too fond of her to really want to do anything _to_ her. She was a good girl, if a bit temperamental once in a while. Overall, though, she was pretty sweet, unless you threatened someone she liked.

So Plan A was a no-go.

The next option was to, instead of eliminating the problem, _mitigate _it. Lessen the threat, lessen the pressure, lessen that cloud of darkness hanging stubbornly over Yusuke's head.

That could be done one of two ways. Either Kuwabara could talk to Keiko and Iwamoto about shutting up and calming down, or he could get Yusuke to pass the test.

As soon as that thought hit him, Kuwabara felt like finding Hiei and begging the small demon to smack him with the flat side of his sword. Getting Yusuke to pass a test... Yeah, right. Maybe Genkai would open a charm school for young ladies and Shizuru would attend. Maybe Yukina would pierce her tongue and Atsuko would be seen with a bottle of cream soda. Maybe Koenma would shave his head and run off to join the circus, dragging Hiei along as the token midget.

It was absurd. And asking Iwamoto to chill out... That was like asking Kurama to trip over his shoelaces. It was a physical impossibility. Iwamoto rarely showed any slack, just as Kurama was rarely anything but perfectly balanced and composed.

So that left asking Keiko not to nag. Kuwabara fought the sigh building in his chest.

Kuwabara knew that the only reason Keiko nagged Yusuke was because she cared about him so deeply. She could not just run up and say "I love you so I want you to do well!" She was... she was not shy, but that was just too bold for her to be. Not to mention there was a pride issue in there somewhere. Not that Kuwabara could decipher Keiko and Yusuke's relationship without Kurama at his side anyway.

Kuwabara was about to go back to passing the test when he was slapped by an idea harder than Keiko's dainty palm.

If two ideas don't work... force them together!

Perhaps it was not the most brilliant of strategies, but it worked often enough. If his spirit sword didn't work, and he needed a pole vault like nothing else... He would just smash the two ideas together. Ta-da: he formed one of his trademark moves. It worked against Byakko almost perfectly.

If Keiko would not stop nagging, and Yusuke could not pass the test...

Why not get Keiko to get Yusuke to pass the test?

It was so easy, it was stupid.

_Easy on me, at any rate, _the delinquent amended. Kuwabara would not be the one cooped up in a library with Yusuke, trying to get him to work Pythagorean Theorem backwards.

Then there was the matter of getting Miss Keiko to agree. If Yusuke had angered her past the breaking point... All of his evil scheming, learned from two months in the wilderness with Hiei and Kurama, was for naught.

_Here's hoping her desire for Yusuke's well being wins out over her desire to see him poked with a sharp stick, _Kuwabara thought dryly.

"Yo, Kuwabara, anybody home? I can practically see the 'Out To Lunch' sign hanging up in your eyes," Yusuke said, annoyance ringing like a bell.

"Very funny," Kuwabara responded distractedly. "Look, man, I'll see you later. Got something I need to take care of, okay?"

Yusuke snorted. What a wonderfully cynical way to end the day. Kuwabara cares for awhile and then he doesn't. _Probably forgot to buy Yukina a 'middle of the week' gift,_ he thought glumly.

"Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Probably," Kuwabara said, glancing at his watch. "We're supposed to meet Kurama at the arcade." He turned around and jogged off in the general direction of the Yukimura diner and residence.

Yusuke reworked his best impression of Hiei and continued towards the home he shared with his mother.

_I wonder how drunk she is tonight... and better yet, if she has anything I can throw together for dinner..._


	2. Part Two

The Right Triangle, part 2

The Yukimura family was not exactly rich. They ran a small ramen restaurant in the bottom level of their building, but they were starting to branch out. Keiko herself had proven quite proficient at the blender, and a new dessert menu with stacks of smoothies and milkshakes were currently the pride of the family.

In fact, she was slicing bananas and strawberries for a smoothie when Kuwabara strode into the dining room.

Keiko glanced up after she heard the door close. "May I take your order?"

"Uh…" Kuwabara fished in his pockets. _Have I spent all my pocket money? _he thought fretfully. _Keiko could slap me if I just bothered her, but if I'm a paying customer, that's _some_ insurance…_

"Banana smoothie?" asked the girl, a little edgy. Kuwabara suppressed a wince; no wonder Yusuke was in such a bad mood… _I feel like the barest spark will set something off… the emotion is thicker than fresh blood…_

"Sure, Keiko," he said, smoothly running a hand through his hair… and promptly hitting a particularly painful snag. He winced; curly hair and gel did not mix, apparently.

Keiko sported a joke of a smile. Maybe she wasn't in the best of moods, but hey, smiles are better than right-hooks, right? Kuwabara's task would be much easier if he was dealing with the normal, sweet schoolgirl most people thought of when they heard 'Keiko Yukimura,' not the annoyed, too-cute-to-be-a-witch, duck-her-fist-now type of person Keiko became whenever Yusuke did something particularly self-destructive.

"Banana smoothie… would be great," he finished lamely, offering the girl his remaining pocket money.

Keiko's cashier's eye ran over it. "You're short, if you want the medium size," she informed him. "Botan told me you could take the small in a gulp without getting a brain freeze."

Kuwabara coughed, remembering that episode. "She… exaggerated."

The brown-eyed girl raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay… I led her on," he admitted. Miss Keiko added a smirk to the quirked eyebrow, and Kuwabara smiled sheepishly. "The loser had to ask Hiei where he got his hair done," he said defensively. "That's certain death, and she can just turn back into her spirit form before the sword gets her… I'd be doomed…"

The girl giggled a little as she poured another customer's smoothie. "You two…" she chuckled. "I don't get why you do stuff like that."

"Adrenaline is the spice of the life," Kuwabara said.

"If you say so…" She frowned pensively as she peeled a banana. Tough, rubbery outside, yet the inside was soft and sweet. Vulnerable. She didn't need her trusty knife to chop the fruit into pieces; she didn't need her faithful rolling pin to mash it flat. She needed nothing but her hands, her own small, thin hands. Her palms could turn the towering column chock full of vitamins and potassium into a sticky pancake. Bananas didn't have the crunchy strength of an apple, or the acidic tang of an orange—they were soft and chewy, sweet and palatable… Defenseless. Vulnerable. They needed to be protected.

Keiko shook her head. Contemplation on the job just got her grounded, usually, and to her old-fashioned parents, 'grounding' equaled 'working from sunup to sundown.' And that left very little time for homework and studying. There had been days that, to Keiko's modern mortification, her parents had insisted that she stay home from school to help in the shop.

In her heart of hearts, Keiko felt that she was capable of much more than simply running a Mom 'n' Pop ramen restaurant for the rest of her life. It was the modern age! Women were venturing out of the home more and more, and not all of them still quit working once they married or their first child was born.

All of her teachers and classmates said so; she was a smart, athletic girl with many talents. Mr. Takenaka had privately told her that she had her choice of high schools. Schools like Meiou Private Academy, where Kurama studied, were already interested in her. Kurama had agreed when she asked his advice, "You'll fit right in," he had laughed. "We're a crazy, cutthroat bunch of perfectionists and geniuses. You'd make some nice friends, too. We pride ourselves on having students with only the most exemplary records." He also said that if she studied a little harder than she was accustomed, she would have no trouble making it through Examination Hell.

A girls' school was also an option. One had several classes geared specifically towards preparing young women for the work force. But if the girls were not interested in office jobs, there was instruction on running a flower arranging or sewing class, or keeping a restaurant.

Privately, Keiko thought she would never go that route—she knew all she needed to know about running a restaurant. Her parents had made sure of that since day one. And she was not interested in it—not that her parents really cared. Her father had threatened her more than once, saying that no schoolwork was more important than helping in the diner. "It's our only livelihood," he had told her angrily, when she had insisted he let her off to prepare a speech for her English class.

But what they didn't get was that she was trying to create for herself an even better livelihood!

So she could never fathom why Yusuke was so against his schoolwork! At this rate, he would never make it into high school, let alone college. Every punch he threw when he should have been studying was a punch to his future…

"Keiko? Keiko, dear, you're turning that smoothie into a flattie…"

"Oh, no!" she cried, hitting the 'off' button on the blender. "I'm sorry, Kuwabara, I blanked out…"

"I noticed," he said with a little smile. "It's fine. Looks pretty good, actually…"

She smiled apologetically and poured his drink. "So. What do you think of the geometry test?"

Kuwabara groaned. "I think Iwamoto's a sadistic son of a cheap pop-gun."

Keiko giggled. "I thought Mr. Akashi was the sadist," she teased.

"Nah, he's just a corrupted, power-abusing idiot. Iwamoto's the one that was willing to call Urameshi's mom a tramp to his face... which is actually more masochistic, now that I think about it…"

Keiko shook her head. "Atsuko's not really a… She's actually pretty smart when she's not totally out of it…"

"That's the key there," Kuwabara agreed. "What're you thinking about it?"

"Study, study, study," Keiko sighed. "I think I'll do well, though."

"Me, too," the ex-delinquent said. "I've been working pretty hard."

Keiko grinned. Kuwabara was what nice, faithful teachers who took their job for the sake of bettering the community called a 'success story.' Mean, irritable teachers who taught because it made them look good in the community might call him a success story to his parents and prospective high schools, but to each other, they would snicker quietly and mutter things like 'possessed' or 'cheated' or 'fluke' or 'bet he threatened Mr. So-and-so, he never had much of a backbone.' Mr. Takenaka, the history teacher, and one of those bettering-the-world types, had been doing his best to appear out of nowhere from behind teachers of the other sort and threaten their jobs, pensions and/or health, but he was only one man, and every grade at a second-rate school like Sarayashiki had at least one sadist of a teacher.

He had started out barely getting ten percent on tests, and now usually landed at least an eighty. Sometimes he dropped around to a seventy-five, but he usually recovered the next time around… Keiko was enormously proud of him. Ever since that incident with Okubo's job, Kuwabara had taken to dropping by the Yukimuras' on Sundays to borrow a book or ask a question about such-and-such topic. It made her furious when she heard Mr. Iwamoto and Mr. Akashi laughing about how Kuwabara was probably shaking down smart students and having them write the answers to test questions on packs of cigarettes… Not even Yusuke had ever cheated. He simply didn't care.

Kuwabara, standing before her, right there, was proof that all you needed to do to be a success was _try_.

"Yeah," she said. "Nowadays, I'd be surprised not to see you up there with Kobayashi and me."

Tsutomu Kobayashi was the school's token nerd. He and Keiko had been having a silent score war since third grade.

Tsutomu had also had a crush on his brown-eyed classmate nearly as long.

"Speaking of Kobayashi," Kuwabara began, "He's been saying things again."

Over the last few months, ever since Yusuke had come back to life, it had been getting more and more obvious to their classmates that he and Keiko had a 'thing' for each other. They had never been on an official date, but there were certain things they said and certain stories… Everyone had seen on the six o'clock news how Keiko had rushed into a blazing inferno to save his life, taking only long enough to dump a bucket of water on her head. Everyone had heard how Yusuke's zombie (or ghost, in some retellings) had magically appeared when Daisuke Motomoto and his gang from Kasanegafuchi Junior High had kidnapped Keiko, even though he was supposedly dead or at least unconscious the whole time…

Tsutomu Kobayashi was infamously jealous of Yusuke Urameshi, and was one of the foremost rumor spreaders that trashed his reputation (even further). Kirishima, Okubo and Sawamura had been telling Kuwabara for weeks about how badly they wanted to introduce his face to their good friend the brick wall, but no one had acted on the (overpowering) impulse… though Kuwabara had come awfully close yesterday…

Keiko groaned softly. "The usual?"

"And then some," Kuwabara said eagerly, trying to hide the resurfacing nervousness. Kobayashi was a good way to lead back onto the test, and finally implement the stupid plan. "Stuff about how he's as dense as the brick wall my dear friends so desperately want to shove him through…"

"He's not," she said, nearly to herself. "He's really as smart as Kobayashi, and then some… He just doesn't care."

"It's no fun for him," Kuwabara told her. "But I bet if he got a semi-decent grade on this test… or at least showed up… Kobayashi would shut right up."

Keiko raised an eyebrow.

"Okay… Kobayashi'd start to say something, I'd pound him on Urameshi's behalf, and _then_ he'd shut right up."

"It'd be nice," Keiko said stiffly. She hated fighting, even if it was Tsutomu Kobayashi. "But Kurama will trip over his own shoelaces first…"

"And he'd have to _wear_ shoelaces to do _that_…" Kuwabara agreed. "But hey, he does have a chance… I mean, if I could do it, so can he, the jerk."

"Yeah, but you have motivation. Yusuke… does not."

"We-ell…" _Now or never._ "Why don'cha give him some?"

"Say what?"

"Motivate him, Keiko. Study with him! Be his nagging older sister!"

"What do you think I've been _doing _with the last ten years of my life?" she asked, amused. "Who put you up to this, anyway? Sounds like one of Botan's plans to get us to further our relationship."

"Botan's got nothing to do with this, she's way too busy to worry about our love lives." _For once._ "But I mean, I just saw him earlier and he's like… a mess. Maybe passing this test will cheer him up?"

"You don't lie much, do you?"

"However did you guess?"

"Forget it."

"Aw, come on, Keiko!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "This could be his last chance! He's never going to make anything of himself if he doesn't do any better…" _I sound like my sister. Freaky. _

Keiko shook her head. How many times had she said that over the years? "I've washed my hands of him."

Kuwabara snorted a laugh, not giving up. "Urameshi—you can't wash your hands of that idiot. Not even if you try, it's like trying to wash your hands to get rid of measles. He's too much of a force in your life, he takes it, and he shakes it down, and leaves you gasping for breath, but feeling so _alive_." _Where the heck am I getting this material? Oh, well. _"You've known him longer than anyone else, and so you should know that _better _than anyone else, too!"

"Oh, I wasn't being literal," she snapped. "I've just decided to stop caring about his schoolwork."

"Oh, yeah, I'll bet," Kuwabara retorted. "That reminds me, by the way, Yukina just called. I told her I've stopped caring about whether or not she finds her missing brother."

"That is a totally different thing!" Keiko exclaimed. "Yukina's entire existence revolves around finding her older brother! It's a labor of deepest love. For Yusuke, schoolwork… is just labor. Period."

"But it could be fundamental to his happiness," Kuwabara said quietly. "Just like Yukina's brother. Since… Since I love her, I think it's my duty to make sure she's happy. And I try to, in my own way. I run into renegade demons around Genkai's and stuff. And I ask them if they've ever seen a fire demon with a necklace like the one she wears. And they say no, and I don't tell her, but I keep doing it anyway, no matter how pointless it gets, because I want to at least _try_ to make her happy." He took a deep breath. "I know you love Urameshi just as much as I love Yukina. I don't know _why_," Keiko nodded in agreement, she sure as heck had no clue, either, "but you do. So… come on. For him?"

"Okay."

"Okay?" Kuwabara repeated incredulously. _Go me! _"Just… okay? No yelling or anything?"

"Duh."

"Oh… uh, cool?"

"You _did_ know I was going to say yes the whole time, didn't you?" asked Keiko matter-of-factly, untying her apron. "I just have this urge to convince someone that I really don't care, since I can never convince myself."

A cricket chirped somewhere.

"_Didn't you?_"

"Um…"

The brown-eyed girl sighed. "Well. It was a nice speech, at any rate. Very moving." She smirked. "If I wasn't going to help him, after hearing that, I definitely would."

"Gee, thanks. Uh…"

"No, I won't tell anyone we ever had this conversation. Especially Hiei and Yusuke about that last part."

"Great!" Kuwabara picked up his bag and finished his smoothie. "So, I'll, um, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, well, you usually do," Keiko said dryly, turning around as Kuwabara left the diner, muttering things about indecipherable women and wasting valuable time on a stupid punk like Urameshi.

Now, how to make someone who knew absolutely nothing about Geometry proficient enough to pass a test…?

_The things I do for love. _


	3. Part Three

_Hey, if you know of any good fics starring any of the wonderful women of Yu Yu Hakusho, including my leading lady Keiko, be sure to drop me a line. I'm on the lookout for good stories about them for my C2. And if you crave a good Yukina fic or a sweet shoujo ai, you may find it in _**Remember the Ladies**_, the only C2 just for the YYH girls. There is actually a lot of romance archived there, but I'm hopeful that soon I will find some genfic that _wasn't_ written by me. Because face it, romance is boring and clichéd._

The Right Triangle, part 3

Yusuke liked Saturdays.

Every once in awhile, Botan would attempt to kill him agai—unexpectedly pop up in his everyday life, with a little errand Koenma had requested him to run. Little things: find this wayward spirit, explore this abandoned temple, fetch this artifact that wasn't stolen by a big bad demon, but by a misguided ferry girl… Most of it was routine stuff. It was stuff that was never dangerous or important enough to bother Kuwabara, Kurama or Hiei. Stuff that would not occupy him so long that he should expect a worried or irate Keiko to assault him the next day, either with tears or her strong little fist. He liked these little errands because there was adrenaline, but no death-defying stunts.

The best part about them, though, was that they were such minor things that, even if Botan had decided to pick up Kuwabara or the demonic duo first, as back up, they could usually wait for a day or two to pass. Just last weekend, Koenma had called him on the Reikai Communications Compact and told him that this special fragrance the ferry girls doused on themselves before entering the Makai, to hide their real scents and keep stray demons from trying to chase or eat them, had been stolen.

"But it's not that urgent," he had said, almost lazy. "Little Sakura is fast enough to get in and out without being detected anyway, and she's graciously agreed to handle the demon deaths for awhile. It can wait until tomorrow."

So Yusuke had lazed about, got a good night's sleep, and forgot about it until Monday morning, when Kuwabara picked up his bed and dumped him onto the floor at six in the morning, yelling at him to hurry up and get dressed. Botan already had his jeans and t-shirt picked out, he threw the clothes on, and off they went to retrieve the spirit perfume. A spiritually aware little girl named Kaori had taken it, to add to her collection of exotic scents, bought by her recently deceased father. Kuwabara had found her in an abandoned estate some miles off the beaten path, and Yusuke had spanked her for being a bad little girl, and Botan had sat her down and gently, but firmly, explained to her what a terribly dangerous thing she had done.

Kaori had cried a little, apologized, and they dropped her off back home with her mother, who had been worried sick. Kaori's mom thanked them for returning her baby girl, stuffed them full of sugar and oatmeal cookies, and home they went, crisis adverted. Botan had promptly sprayed on the perfume (which smelled like rotting flesh and spoiled milk), and ran off to assist her colleague Sakura in the demon runs. It was just another day's work for the Urameshi Team.

On this particular Saturday, Yusuke was a bit more tired than usual. He had been up rather late on Friday, talking to Kurama on the phone. Iwamoto had cornered the delinquent in the halls, and delivered a very loud, very abusive lecture on what sort of interesting cheating schemes he likely had planned for the test. Kurama had tried to settle his nerves, but every few minutes, he would run downstairs for something or cover the phone to have another conversation. From what Yusuke gathered, he was hosting a study group…

Yusuke yawned. He was hungry. Breakfast sounded like a good idea.

Although, it might not be such a good idea to enter his kitchen… His mother could be heard laughing, of all things. Never a good sign.

And as Yusuke edged closer to the kitchen, the person making Atsuko laugh became clear, and it wasn't comforting at all: Keiko. Atsuko laughing at something Keiko said could only mean that she was laughing at him. Keiko had a wonderful gift for trivializing everything Yusuke said or did. No matter how many people Yusuke could knock over with his Shotgun, it didn't matter if Keiko had won another award for her essays or solved some super tough equation.

And when she made his accomplishments look like something a two year old could do blindfolded and tied down with their blanket, she did it in such a way that Yusuke didn't just look worse next to her, he looked stupid. And nothing made Atsuko laugh quite like her son looking stupid.

So Yusuke was debating even entering his kitchen. He could just go out through his bedroom balcony. Kurama and Hiei taught him how: just use the railing to boost himself to the next balcony and keep going till he reached the roof. Once there, he could jump to the next roof or into a nearby tree and be free. Free of Atsuko and her jeering, free of Keiko and her superiority complex.

In fact, Yusuke had just turned around when he felt a tap on his shoulder. And a cold feeling of dread knocked his stomach right down into his knees. That familiar tap was as ominous as an ambulance siren; it could only mean bad things. Possibly injury.

"What do you want?" he asked flatly, refusing to turn around. He had not parted with Keiko on the best of terms yesterday, before walking home with Kuwabara. He seemed to remember her calling him a jerk and telling him he was an idiot for wasting his time on fighting and demons.

"You," she said flatly. "And not like that, you idiot," she added after a minute, sensing the wicked response he was cooking up for her, just from that one syllable. "We have a test coming up, and I _know_ you haven't studied."

"Wow," Yusuke said sarcastically, "You really are smart."

"Oh, shut up," she answered tiredly. "I ought to be studying myself for the test, but I'm helping you instead. Where's the gratitude?"

"You're invading my lazy Saturday and making me work!" exclaimed the delinquent. "Why should I be grateful for that?"

"Because I'm trying to keep you from failing?" she speculated.

"I've never failed yet."

"'Yet' being the key word," she argued. "Now come on. We're done fighting. I know you lost your book, so I have mine. Get dressed; I already made breakfast for you. Enough for you to have seconds. Thirds, maybe fourths, even."

Well, that was good, at least. Keiko was a phenomenal cook. Probably from spending her life working in a restaurant. She did not really think, though, she always cooked way too much for just Yusuke and Atsuko. Again, though, Yusuke figured it was born of being a restaurateur's daughter.

Years of experience had recognized the bright little fire in Keiko's eyes. Yusuke was not winning this battle. She was going to make him study, come hell or high water. If it killed her, he would crack that book.

And if he didn't, she would crack his head. Period.

So even if he was grumbling all the while, Yusuke slunk back into his bedroom and donned a shirt and pants. He mumbled curses against her person as he shuffled back into the kitchen. He refused to look at Atsuko's flushed face – especially since he was never sure if the flush was merely from mirth. Most especially, though, he refrained from complimenting Keiko's cooking.

And that was hard.

She scrambled eggs to fluffy perfection. Pancakes were golden brown, and with a pat of butter and a deep, sticky bath of maple syrup, Yusuke felt that the old picture he kept in his drawer, a photograph of Keiko wearing her ruffled pink apron, armed with a rolling pin in one hand and a spatula in the other, ought to be sent in to Webster's or whoever, with a note demanding that it be placed next to the definition of 'perfection' or 'paradise' or 'nirvana.'

But Keiko had ruined his perfect Saturday. His day of nothing but hanging around and playing video games. And so she was going to be punished.

Which meant that he couldn't sigh when he ate the perfect pancake. And he couldn't grab frantically for the fresh, piping hot plate of hash browns when she set it in front of him.

It was torture. And Yusuke had the sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly what he was doing; trying to play her off, and that she was enjoying making him sweat.

So many games they played. So much deception, so many tricks, and so many veils they pulled before each other, these years-old friends, these wishful lovers.

"Done yet?" Keiko asked impatiently. Her arms were crossed. Atsuko had left already, muttering something vague about drug busts and a cop with flimsy morals. Which left her alone with Yusuke and his bad temper. She was not afraid: Yusuke had only ever hurt her once. He pulled her braids when they were four, and she cried so much that he had never laid a painful hand on her since. Teasing, perverted and entirely unwelcome hands, now, those he laid on her daily. Embarrassing, but not painful.

"What if I'm not?" he challenged.

"Too bad for you, you're out of pancake mix," she responded tartly. "Get up. Get your keys. And some pencils."

Somewhere deep in his mind, Yusuke wondered why he let this little girl order him around so much.

And then he remembered that, oh, yeah: he was in love with her.

Dang it.


	4. Part Four

_A random decision to go through my files in search of unfinished fanfiction I wanted to look over in the hopes of curing my writer's block turned up this completed, never posted chapter four of Triangle… oops? I believe this was read and critiqued by KowaretaTsubasa, but I don't remember if I ever edited it. (Not surprising, when I never remembered to post it, either…)_

_Don't count on seeing part 5 anytime soon (if ever), but hopefully you'll enjoy this last little bit._

_I apologize for my chronic inability to finish chapter fics. Please enjoy my one-chapter, completed fics instead. I do feel the art of the short story is sadly unappreciated, personally.  
_

The Right Triangle, part 4

Kirishima cast a furtive glance around as he spotted Keiko and Yusuke leaving the apartment building. He clicked on his walkie-talkie and reported, "Boss, this is Fighter. Over."

Kuwabara responded instantly. "Roger, Fighter, I read you loud and clear. Over."

"Princess and Gun Bunny have left the building. They're heading towards the library and Big Man. Over."

"Ten-four," Kuwabara replied. "I'll tell Big Man. Good job, soldier, go on home and watch some cartoons. Or better yet, you could even study for that stupid Geometry test."

Kirishima laughed. "Yeah, right, man. Just because you're obsessed with school now doesn't mean I have to be. Over and out, Boss. Later."

Kuwabara, already waiting in the Non-Fiction Section of the library, shook his head. Sometimes his friends… "Big Man, this is Boss. Over."

"What's up, Kuwabara?" answered Okubo a moment later.

"_Okubo_!" Kuwabara exclaimed, hoping that the library patrons would ignore him. "You can't use my real name, you have to use my codename! Otherwise, if Princess and Gun Bunny hear you, they'll know what we're up to!"

"If Keiko and Urameshi hear me, they won't care what I'm up to. They'll just beat me up and go along their merry way," replied the patient teen. "Anyway. What's up, Boss?"

"Fighter says Princess and Gun Bunny are heading your way," said the "boss."

"I got 'em in sight," Okubo responded, parting the branches of the tree he was hiding in. "Princess is pulling Gun Bunny by the ear," he added, knowing the mental image would amuse Kuwabara.

Sure enough, back in the library, a college girl was staring at him oddly as he tried his best not to laugh hysterically. She shook her head and wondered if she ought to get the librarian. That big school kid that looked suspiciously like that Kuwabara punk from Sarayashiki was annoying the other library patrons.

Only suspiciously like Kuwabara, because the teen had disguised himself. His long sleeved shirts and trench coats had been traded for slacks, a thick sweatshirt, sunglasses, a baseball cap and a big woolen scarf he'd stolen from his sister. Luckily, however, libraries are usually freezing, and this one was particularly icy. Kuwabara swore he saw icicles on a cookbook...

Okubo called back, saying that "Princess" and "Gun Bunny" were about to intercept "Buzzcut" (Sawamura) and "Glasses Girl" (Keiko's friend Natsuko) and signed off. He had babysitting duties that day. Soon, "Glasses Girl" informed him that she followed the targets all the way to the library, once Sawamura had left to run a few errands.

"They're on the front steps now, Boss," she said. "And you better know what you're doing, I still don't think it's safe for Princess to spend so much time with Urameshi."

Kuwabara rolled his eyes, and edged out toward the front of the library. Explaining the real Urameshi to Natsuko took more time than he wanted to spend on it. "Roger that, Glasses Girl. Thanks for your help. Over."

"No problem," Natsuko replied. "I'm hanging around anyway, my mom teaches a flower arranging class next door. Over and out."

Kuwabara stuck his walkie-talkie into his backpack, sitting alone on a table. Using his sneaking skills, a useful lesson from Kurama's Pre-Tournament He—Training, he slid behind a bookshelf rather close to the door and prepared to listen in as Keiko and Yusuke entered.

Sure enough, he knew exactly when they did. Miss Keiko had apparently not let go of Yusuke's ear ever since Okubo reported she had grabbed it, and every step Yusuke took was punctuated by an annoyed 'ouch!' or 'leggo a-me!'

Finally, once they were inside, Keiko released him in order to rub her arms, already covered in goose bumps. "It's freezing," she tossed out, wondering what Yusuke would respond.

"It's the library," he snapped back. "Can we go now?"

"Oh, no," answered the girl grimly. "You sit down, and get out your pencil. I have the book. We're going to start now, and we aren't going to stop until you can pass that test, by God."

_If she keeps to that, they just might skip the test,_ Kuwabara thought. Sure, he had all the faith in the world in Keiko's stubbornness and Urameshi's intelligence, but it was Saturday. The test was on Monday. That was a lot of cramming. Even he had a week until the science test that decided Okubo's fate.

Not to mention he had the motivation of his friend's well-being spurring him along. All Yusuke had was a nagging childhood companion that doubled as an 'I'm-Not-Gonna-Say-So-And-I-May-Kill-You-If-You-Do' girlfriend.

The problem with Keiko just then: she was stubborn. And she could never tell Yusuke that she only cared for his happiness, and she thought that good school marks would make that happiness more real. If she said it in those terms, Yusuke would try, just so she would never worry. But Keiko could never just say that she loved him. Which made absolutely no sense to heart-on-his-sleeve, keeping-it-real Kuwabara. He loved Yukina, he told her so, and they were well on their way to happily ever after. Problem solved.

But Keiko nagged to get her results. And she didn't stop. Her strategy seemed merely to annoy him into getting what she wanted: his well being. But if she would just be herself and tell a certain someone what he didn't even really know he wanted to hear…

Right now, she was turning her book to the chapter the test was on. Keiko pulled a compass out of her purse and immediately set to drawing perfect circles on a piece of notebook paper. And once she finished with those, she began drawing lines in and around them.

To Yusuke, it looked more like spell circles than homework. And those were just as boring. One of those random errands Koenma had him go on last month had involved a sorcerer from the spirit realm who specialized in mind control. By sheer luck of the draw, Hiei had been fascinated by mind control for most of his life and read up extensively on the subject. Koenma had bribed the demon to teach Yusuke all about mind control and the spell circles one used for it, but Yusuke had been so bored by Hiei's deep, monotonous voice and the dry subject matter that he nodded off. When he woke up, he found a note Hiei wrote for him, stating simply that he washed his hands of Yusuke. But Yusuke had been pleased to find out in the heat of battle (he had gone alone, not even with Botan, since the more companions he had, the more people could be turned against him) that, in a rare fit of sympathy and an even rarer fit of patience, Hiei had continued to lecture him while he slept. And Yusuke was much more observant in his sleep than in his waking life: he retained the information perfectly.

He told the story to Keiko, in the hope that she would follow Hiei's example, but she'd coldly reminded him that Hiei was pretty good with mind tricks himself. How did he know that Hiei kept lecturing, and not just planted the information into his brain? Yusuke had no answer. No way of knowing, except his hunch that Hiei believed defeating the sorcerer was up to him. Planting the information ensured victory. To Hiei, that was bad. But continuing to lecture meant it was up to Yusuke whether or not he could recall the information. Hiei was just twisted enough to waste his precious time on Yusuke if it meant teaching him a lesson—whether or not the lesson killed him was a moot point.

Anyway, that was when she grabbed his ear and moved to drag him to the library. And the ear was still sore.

Finally, Keiko laid down her pencil and, after briefly admiring her work, handed it to Yusuke. "Look at the first circle," she instructed. "Now, identify the tangent."

"…The what?"

"The tangent," she repeated.

"I heard you, I just have no idea what the heck you're talking about," responded Yusuke.

Keiko sighed. "For goodness sakes, Yusuke, Mr. Iwamoto just reviewed it yesterday!"

"Well, I was busy yesterday!"

"What, you mean the paper airplane wouldn't crash into Kuwabara's head by itself?" Keiko retorted.

Behind the bookshelf, Kuwabara scowled and cracked his knuckles. And here he'd been thinking Shin Suzuki threw that airplane. Stupid Urameshi.

Before Yusuke could respond to Keiko's sarcasm, though, she got out her compass and drew another circle on a new piece of paper, drew in the little senseless lines, and began labeling them. Finally, she pointed to one and said, "This is the tangent."

"It's a line."

"It's a certain kind of line, called a tangent," she said patiently. _Don't screw up, don't get angry… _"See? This line is tangent to the circle."

Yusuke stared at the diagram. Unblinking. Not understanding.

Keiko groaned. "Look." She pointed to the line. "It runs along the side of the circle. See this line here that starts in the center and stops at the circle's edge? That's the radius. The tangent line and the radius line here make a right angle. That's how you know that a line is a tangent, if it makes a right angle with a radius."

Yusuke blinked. "You lost me at 'see.'"

"Just look at the first diagram and tell me which is the tangent and which is the radius," she snapped.

Yusuke picked up the paper. He frowned pensively, thinking. Both Kuwabara and Keiko would have dearly loved to ask him if it hurt, but Kuwabara was still trying to spy on them quietly and Keiko felt she had already been too mean today.

Finally, Yusuke pointed to the line that seemed to form one side of a box around the circle. "That's the tangerine, right?"

"_Tangent,_" Keiko corrected. "Yes. Good boy."

"I'm not your pet," he snapped.

"I'd never have such a rotten pet anyway," she retorted automatically, and then tried not to cringe. Arguments were just too routine by now. "Find the dang radius."

"This one?" He pointed to a line that split the circle in half.

"That's the diameter," Keiko told him. "Close, though. The length of the radius is half the length of the diameter."

"So it's like two radiuses?"

"Radii."

"Who?"

"Ray-dee-eye," Keiko enunciated. "It's the plural of radius."

"Why? Radiuses makes more sense," Yusuke objected.

And on and on and on... It was beginning to run together for Kuwabara, and he was aching to go off and find a book... Listening to Keiko explain the stuff he had been going over in school, during homework and any other moment he could lately was more soporific than that stupid study of Australian plants Kurama had wanted for his last birthday...

Kuwabara yawned just thinking about it.

_But hey... Speaking of Kurama... weren't Urameshi and I supposed to...?_

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of town from the library, Kurama sneezed and glanced at his watch. 

"...I think I've been stood up..."


End file.
